A prayer is a promise

“Spotless Mother of God,
only all-hymned Virgin, pray intensely that we may be
saved.”(Great Canon, Ode 2, Clean Wed,
Theotokion)

When
chanting this verse from the Great Canon tonight, which shows the confidence we
have in the intercession of the Mother of God, I trembled a little. When a
reasonable person asks for something, they know there is an obligation placed upon
them. If we ask the all pure one to pray intensely, we must also attempt in our
feeble way to pray intensely. Her prayers are powerful, but God is not pleased with
the lazy. The Most Holy Theotokos indeed will pray intensely to her Son, and we
should do no less, otherwise we are liars and hypocrites. We are liars because we
are breaking the tacit promise of this prayer, and hypocrites because the All-Holy
will be praying that we be helped to be made pure by her Son, and to ask for help
but give no assistance to the helper is to be a lazy hypocrite.